This paper begins by looking at the state of federal administrative law in Australia just before the time the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) was enacted and how it was then considered that courts dealt with findings of fact on judicial review.  After next considering the Court’s administrative law jurisdiction in its early years, the paper then contrasts the state of the law of federal judicial review of findings of fact in the 1970s with the state of the law 40 years later. The landscape has changed.